Another Opinion on Whatever the Mets Are Doing

As the saying goes, opinions are like anuses, in that every Romulan has three of them. (Note: Our Star Trek lore might not be factually correct.) But like every Romulan orifice, some opinions are more trusted and stable than others, which is why we took notice when Baseball Prospectus's great Joe Sheehan weighed in on the Mets' inactivity Sunday night. (Sorry, registration required.)

Matt Holliday could make sense, as he's a gap-to-gap hitter who should play well in Citi Field, he's good enough defensively to cover ground in those same gaps, and he fits within the payroll parameters. Bay would likely be less expensive and require a shorter commitment, but his defensive issues would give back a lot of the offense he provides. This will be the first time I've recommended this for anyone, but the Mets should sign Matt Holliday for up to $18 million per season on up to a five-year deal. They'll be hurting a little on the back end of that, but the improvement over Murphy or Pagan (who is a strong fourth outfielder, and probably better than Francoeur) in the short term is worth that. …

Delgado is one of the few players available who brings some OBP, and the Mets should try and fill the spot with a left-handed batter for lineup balance. Coming off a shortened season, and with a limited market for free agents — Nick Johnson's contract is likely an upper bound for Delgado — he'd be inexpensive enough to allow for another signing, such as [Erik] Bedard. As a value-for-money proposition, I'd rather have Delgado for one year at his price than commit to Adam LaRoche for three years at his.

We're not sure we understand all of this — for example, the Cardinals have already offered Holliday $16 million over eight seasons, so $18 million for five years, you'd think, wouldn't get it done — but it's worth noting that Sheehan actually believes a Reyes/Beltran/Holliday/Delgado/Wright/Francoeur/Castillo/whichever-catcher-survives combo could potentially be competitive. "Potentially be competitive"? Hey, whatever works.